The cost of upgrading and maintaining the Cook Strait electricity cable may be spread across all consumers, a move which South Island generators have welcomed.
They say the move would "even up the playing field" and enable projects such as the proposed $450 million Kaiwera Downs wind farm, near Gore, to proceed.
South Island generators carry the full operational cost of the Cook Strait HVDC cable because it was laid to take electricity to North Island consumers. They pay a charge per megawatt of electricity produced, and said the present regime made it uneconomic for them to build hydro-power stations or wind farms.
In a report released last week, an advisory group established by the Electricity Authority to look at the issue has acknowledged changes are warranted.
In a majority decision, the 10-member group recommended costs be shared across all consumers, a system known as "postage stamping".
The recommendation was "good news", TrustPower community relations manager Graeme Purches said. TrustPower has already blamed cable charges for holding back its South Island wind farm developments.
The company has consent for 100 turbines at Mahinerangi but has only installed 12. Those turbines connect to the local network and avoid the levies which come with supplying to the national grid.
The company also has consent for its 120-turbine, 240MW Kaiwera Downs wind farm but put the development on hold pending the outcome of the Electricity Authority review.
Mr Purches said a recommendation would be put to TrustPower's board that Kaiwera Downs proceed "straight away" if the cable charging regime changedIt was likely that project would be completed before any more turbines were installed at Mahinerangi, he said.
The new charging regime would "level the playing field" for all generators, whether they were planning projects in the South or North Islands, Meridian external relations general manager Guy Waipara said.
Mr Waipara, who is a member of the advisory group, said the group recommended the new regime be phased in over time, perhaps 10 or 15 years.
But he said the group had recommended there be no charges "from day one" for any new generation projects.
That would make projects proposed in the South Island more economical and make it "highly probable" many would proceed, he said.
Asked if electricity prices would increase to recover cable costs from consumers, Mr Waipara said he did not believe so. Because there were so many consumers, the cost per consumer would be very small and wholesale electricity prices could be expected to decrease as new generation came on stream.
